Dark Maiden
Norma Lehr
Reviewed by Sabrina Wiliams for BreeniBooks
To family and friends, Sheila appears to be a distraught mother in
mourning. It's to be expected, since she has just lost her only son to
SIDS, or crib death. But Sheila knows she has reason to be frantic; she
saw the ghostly Asian woman who took her son's life. The woman took his
soul.
Sheila's bleary awareness on her prescribed medications allows her
husband Karl to move her out of their apartment and into a home in the
country close to her only other surviving family member, her aunt Iris.
Karl moves her more out of concern for his own freedom. He can't keep
an eye on an unstable wife all day long and his indiscretions while
Sheila was in the hospital may come back to haunt him if he stays in
the city.
Moving away doesn't help Sheila. Her hallucinations increase. The Asian
woman haunts her everywhere she goes, mysterious shadows follow, and a
strange gray fox has been spotted hanging around the house. Plus, she
can't escape the incredible attraction she has for one of her new
neighbors, Chad. Chad is trying to open up a collapsed mine on the
property, and for some reason, Sheila feels his success is imperative.
The shapeshifter that haunts Sheila will take its toll on everyone
around her, causing death and destruction. No one is safe. An ancient
force is determined to manifest in this world through the emotionally
weakened young mother. The succubus needs a missing amulet to follow
through with her desires, and she's using Sheila to get to it.
Dark Maiden is a new supernatural suspense novel from Norma Lehr,
released in 2007. Chinese legend and earth magic meet in this fast
paced story. It was obvious from the beginning that some characters
would need to be eliminated for the story to work, and it was
interesting to see how Lehr took care of that detail. There are so many
characters, the reader only gets to know each person on a surface
level. The ending is left wide open with the possibility of a sequel.
It's a fun story, but I think Lehr, who has previously written
children's ghost stories, would do well to break out of that writing
style. With its short, choppy chapters and surface content, Dark Maiden
is very similar to a young adult novel.
(Sabrina is giving away a copy of this- check out her
blog
for details.)